Gotham City: Year One by Tom King and Phil Hester

[Isaac Lawrence]

Such disdain for a talented writer......but I confess he's an acquired taste. (I enjoyed most of his Batman run, and I'm presently enjoying Human Target)

Alas for me, I just find year one back stories kind of dry.

Yeah, with Tom King I treat him like everyone else: some of the things he does I like, and some of the things he does I have little to no interest in.

I liked THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON at Vertigo, and I liked RORSCHACH -- even though to this day I have only read the first issue of WATCHMEN. I remember well seeing in on the shelf in the comic shop when it was coming out, but I just never got around to reading it. One day I guess I will. But of course I've been saying that for decades now...

But yeah, l liked THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON and RORSCHACH. And pretty much everything else by him I've had little to no interest in.

Something like GOTHAM CITY: YEAR ONE though is right in my wheelhouse.

Probably because I think GOTHAM CENTRAL is the greatest Bat-book ever made.

[JBatmanFan05]

Such disdain for a talented writer......but I confess [Tom King's] an acquired taste. (I enjoyed most of his Batman run)

I'm in the same camp I'd say. And I'm definitely interested in this series, I've always been rather indifferent to Slam Bradley, so this series could change that maybe.

[Restingvoice]

This is the kind of thing I'd love for the lore... except that this is too far away from Bruce to be relevant so the interest kind of go down 2 generations

I'll reconsider if Alan Scott and the JSA are actually in it

By the way in Post Crisis Slam Bradley was in present day wasn't he?

[MajorHoy]

This is the kind of thing I'd love for the lore... except that this is too far away from Bruce to be relevant so the interest kind of go down 2 generations

I'll reconsider if Alan Scott and the JSA are actually in it

By the way in Post Crisis Slam Bradley was in present day wasn't he?

Well, he was a bit of an older character so he would have been a generation before Batman and others. (Selina did mess around with Slam's adult son, didn't she?)

But this is Tom King, so it probably doesn't matter what's come before.
And Slam's reputation did take some hits from New Super-Man a few years back, even though that wasn't actually a 100% accurate presentation . . .

[Isaac Lawrence]

Funny this: DC Announces 'Gotham City: Year One' by Tom King and Phil Hester...

King and Hester, along with Eric Gapstur, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles, launch Gotham City: Year One on October 4. Taking place two generations before Batman, private investigator Slam Bradley gets tangled in the headline-grabbing “kidnapping of the century” as the infant Wayne heir Helen disappears in the night…and so begins a brutal, hard-boiled, epic tale of a man living on the edge and a city about to burn.

The kidnapping of an infant was also the storyline for the first season of the HBO Perry Mason show; which was basically "Perry Mason: Year One" -- him as a private investigator before he became a lawyer.

I knew there was some reason why I immediately thought that this would make for a great HBO Max show.

[HsssH]

So this is going to be like Supergirl where the entire issue felt like it was lifted from True Grit?

[Frontier]

So this is going to be like Supergirl where the entire issue felt like it was lifted from True Grit?

Time will tell. King does love his inspirations .

[SixSpeedSamurai]

Hard pass for me as mentioned in the other thread. I am liking Killing Time, but his Batman run, Batman/Catwoman, and HiC were not very good. Hester's angular style just doesn't do anything for me.

[Isaac Lawrence]

It would be kind of hilarious if the trail to find little baby Helen leads Slam Bradley to Gotham City's Chinatown...

But I imagine they won't do that.

They would be like, "Nah, we're not doing that in this series. We're not going there."

EDIT:

And I guess from the Tom's panel...

1:56 PM -- Tom King announces that he will be working on Gotham City: Year One

1:57 PM -- What can he do that he hasn't done before? He wants to change the Bat mythos forever with Gotham City: Year One. It will be as big as Grant and Scott's changes to the Bat mythos.

1:58 PM -- It's about Batman's grandparents. How did Gotham become a hell hole? It's a dark noir story.

1:58 PM -- "It's us doing Sin City within the Bat universe." -King

1:59 PM -- It will redefine how you look at Batman

2:01 PM -- For more on Tom King and Phil Hester's Gotham City: Year One, check out this article: https://www.thepopverse.com/gotham-c...ester-batman-c

2:02 PM -- He's never had more fun than write Gotham City: Year One.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

It would be kind of hilarious if the trail to find little baby Helen leads Slam Bradley to Gotham City's Chinatown...

But I imagine they won't do that.

They would be like, "Nah, we're not doing that in this series. We're not going there."

EDIT:

And I guess from the Tom's panel...

Sounds like he's planning on @#$%^ things up.

[JBatmanFan05]

The kidnapping of an infant was also the storyline for the first season of the HBO Perry Mason show; which was basically "Perry Mason: Year One" -- him as a private investigator before he became a lawyer.

I knew there was some reason why I immediately thought that this would make for a great HBO Max show.

A good chance both of the fictional kidnappings are a reference to the infamous 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping. I'd certainly bet King is referring to that.

Sounds like he's planning on @#$%^ things up.

I wouldn't necessarily mind some radical things as long as it's kinda like Bat/Cat and DC doesn't have to use any of it as canon. I'm more tolerant these days of allowing things to be thrown at the wall as long as they all don't have to stick. Three Jokers has been another instance of that, as Johns even said.

[G-Man27]

I hope Shorty shows up as I loved his antics in the stories I managed to find of Slam's

[MajorHoy]

It would be kind of hilarious if the trail to find little baby Helen leads Slam Bradley to Gotham City's Chinatown...

But I imagine they won't do that.

They would be like, "Nah, we're not doing that in this series. We're not going there."

EDIT:

And I guess from the Tom's panel...

1:56 PM -- Tom King announces that he will be working on Gotham City: Year One

1:57 PM -- What can he do that he hasn't done before? He wants to change the Bat mythos forever with Gotham City: Year One. It will be as big as Grant and Scott's changes to the Bat mythos.

1:58 PM -- It's about Batman's grandparents. How did Gotham become a hell hole? It's a dark noir story.

1:58 PM -- "It's us doing Sin City within the Bat universe." -King

1:59 PM -- It will redefine how you look at Batman

2:01 PM -- For more on Tom King and Phil Hester's Gotham City: Year One, check out this article: https://www.thepopverse.com/gotham-c...ester-batman-c

2:02 PM -- He's never had more fun than write Gotham City: Year One.

I thought Gotham City became "a hell hole" in part because of the deaths of Thomas and Martha?

[Frontier]

It would be kind of hilarious if the trail to find little baby Helen leads Slam Bradley to Gotham City's Chinatown...

But I imagine they won't do that.

They would be like, "Nah, we're not doing that in this series. We're not going there."

EDIT:

And I guess from the Tom's panel...

I mean, sounds like typical King. I'm guessing Bruce's grandparents weren't the best.

[Restingvoice]

Well, he was a bit of an older character so he would have been a generation before Batman and others. (Selina did mess around with Slam's adult son, didn't she?)

But this is Tom King, so it probably doesn't matter what's come before.
And Slam's reputation did take some hits from New Super-Man a few years back, even though that wasn't actually a 100% accurate presentation . . .

Oh it was his son! That's the part I got confused